What If
by thebookworm7
Summary: What if Harry Potter wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived? What if if was his brother Matthew instead. What if Ginny Weasley was belittled by her brothers, and what if her parents tried to force her into a marriage contract? And what if they both decided that they couldn't take it anymore? What if...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Harry Potter sat in his bedroom. It was his sixteenth birthday and, like normal, his brother was being showered with presents downstairs and he was up here, with his godfather Sirus. Sirius was the only one who actually treated him with the same amount of love that was given to Matthew.

"Are you ok, pup?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing new, Sirius. It's literally the same every year. At least I have you." Harry replied.

"It shouldn't be that way though.. I honestly wish that there was something I could do, to help you."

Harry paused. "Well, Siri, there is something... Help me leave. I just want to disappear. Start a new life. Maybe one day I will come back. But they don't need or want me here. We both know that. You're the only one who cares enough to be with me on my birthday for God's sake."

"Pup, are you sure about this? If I do this for you, there's no going back."

"Can you do it though?"

"Yes.", Sirius sighed. "Yes, I can, and I will. As long as I can come and visit you."

"Of course, Siri! I couldn't leave you behind." Harry said cheekily, tackling his godfather.

Ginny Weasley was at the bottom of her garden. Alone. Again. She wasn't surprised. In fact, she quite liked it. When she was with her family, she was shouted at by her brothers, and belittled by her mother, for whom it seemed that she could do nothing right.

This was mainly because she was trying to turn Ginny into a perfect little house wife - teaching her to bake, and do laundry and telling her that she should always do that her future husband wants her to do.

She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want her life to turn out like her mother's. She wanted to be sucessful, and have a steady, equal relationship, that she chose herself.

That last point was very important. That she wanted to pick who she spent the rest of her life with. Lately, her mother had been mentioning marriage contracts. And what was worse that was when she tried to talk to her father about him doing something about it, he just said that he didn't see why it was such a problem.

That was the last straw. It was bad enought that her mum was trying to turn her into a mini-Molly, but trying to make her marry someone of their choice? How could they do that?

Ginny would not let that happen to her. She needed to leave, before something terrible could happen to her. And she knew exactly who could help her do it.

Sirius Black looked at the letter in his hand. Unbelieveable. First it was Harry, wanting to leave. That he could understand. Now, it was little Ginny Weasley. A girl he had known since she was born. Sadly, he could also understand that. He didn't know what was going through Molly Weasley's brain sometimes. He knew she was strong willed but to force her daughter into a marriage contract?! He couldn't allow that to happen.

And so it was decided. Sirius would help Harry and Ginny to disappear. The fact that they knew each other well was a bonus, as it meant that he could send them away together, and they wouldn't be as alone.

Sitting down at his desk, Sirius got to work.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It had all been arranged. Ginny would meet Harry and Sirius at the Leaky Cauldron under the pretensce of meeting Luna, who was also in on the plan. THey would then venture into the muggle world, and head to the airport, where they would fly to New Zealand.

It was all perfectly laid had passports, and he had contacted the Ministry in New Zealand, who had agreed to give them citizenship, and he'd, managed to enrol them in NZSM - the New Zealand School of Magic, where they would both be in their final year (because of how the boundary for the years fell).

He had also moved all the money he could into an untraceable Gringotts account, so that their location couldn't be comprimised, doing the same thing for Ginny.

He would stay with them for a few weeks until the start of school, to find them a place to stay when they weren't in school, and so that he was able "set up a new business" over there, aka his cover story so he could stay with them over the holidays wituhout suspicion.

Given that they were sixteen and seventeen, respectivley, he figured that they were able to take care of themselves for the majority of the time.

Everything was so well planned, that he was almost certain that once he got Ginny and Harry away from their respective families, the plan would go perfectly.

With all of this planned, Sirius Black wrote and sent two letters, and sat back to wait.

Ginny was sat in her bedroom, her letter from Sirius clutched in her fingers. All day, her mother had been pilng on the chores, between her insescent vocal pondering as to which terrible wizard she should marry her daughter off to.

With trembling fingers, she broke the seal, removed the letter inside the envolope and scanned it , hardly daring to believe what she was reading. She would be free!

The plan was set for the day after next, and the letter said that she was to respond if the plan was satisfactory, which of course it was. She sat down at her desk and scribbled a reply, which she sent off with Errol, before hurrying back downstairs to her mother

The next day, Sirius arrived at the Potter mansion, to pick up Harry, under the pretence of a godfather-godson camping trip. Of course, he had no intention of actually going camping, but Lily and James didn't need to know that.

After greeting his best friends, he headed upstairs to Harry's room.

"Hey, pup. Are you ready to leave? You don't have to leave if you don't want. It's still ok to back out if you want." Sirius said, kind of hoping that his godson wouldn't want to go through with it..

"Yeah. Thank you Sirius. Honestly. I know how hard it has been for you to do this for me, and I just want you to know how much this means." Harry said, getting up and hugging his godfather. "My bags are over here. I can't shrink them down yet, so i thought you could do that for me. I have a backpack to put it all in for the airport, so it doesn't look too weird. What time are we going to get Gin'?"

"Well we need to be at the Leakey Cauldron for 11 am, because your flight leaves at 2 in the afternoon, and I figured that we might need a bit of time to figure out how to do the airport stuff."

"Sounds good. Shall we go then?" Harry replied.

Contrary to popular belief, Ginny and Harry actually knew each other very well. To the wizarding world, Harry was the lowly, forgettable brother of the Boy-Who-Lived and Ginny was snubbed by the wizarding world, being the only female Weasley and being looked down upon and bad-mouthed by her brothers all the time. As a result of this, they were thrown together quite alot, being of a similar age, and in the same Hogwarts house.

It was ten thirty, and Ginny was trying to leave the Burrow. It seemed that whilst her mum had agreed to "let her go see Luna", she was determined to make her do her share of chores, and keep her at home for as long as possible. This was making Ginny very antsy, because she needed to get to the Cauldron so she could flee her impending marriage contract.

At last, she was able to slip away, having left a note on her bed, for her parents to find when she was long gone. As the green flames of the Floo swirled around her, she took one last look at the place she had called home for the past fifteen years, saying goodbye.


End file.
